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Post by BAZman on Apr 5, 2021 23:18:12 GMT -5
Frank: * BRILLIANT * Absolutely brilliant. From a manufacturing perspective, once tooling is covered, its cash for all the rest. Since all the shells are generally the same (excepting a Fan, headlight, etc. slide), those are next cost that is not recoverable. A painted shell is scrap but the chassis can be recovered for additional models or re-runs. While I really do know 'Business *is* Business. we all likely know there are many that care about the end result; happy customers. Hans and Rob have been really open about all that's going on, in particular the prediction of quantities needed, one year (or more, as in the past). As shown, 'guesses' of '100' were off. But 10, 25 or 50 off? And Sometimes, whoa, way over. Being cautious in a couple of costly wrong guesses can put a heavy bias on those forecast predictions although current production partners seemingly have been a great partner with sooner production, easing the pay-to-play factor, IMHO. As I know it hurts to over guess and be left with excess product (breakfast for Rob Kluz Christmas gifts), with the successful businesses I have been involved with, the excess is much less painful than than a mad customer. Then there is the Supply Chain. Once in a America, the Dealers with their orders which can and have been able to satisfy their customers firstI and then there are the online Releases, typically 12 Midnight which is 0900 in Europe so by the time the average US is up and checking *each* day (Commodore  ), statistics says . . . you loose. So let us all encourage the LARGER quantity product at *we* will help *you* sell them, if not. (just no pink hoppers). Otherwise, I would be happy to be your CFO, to take that burden off your shoulders. |
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Post by Hans Riddervold (AZL) on Apr 6, 2021 6:12:52 GMT -5
We will order larger quantities from here on out. And if we still miss the mark, we will make more. In the past many of our decisions regarding subject and quantity where outright risky. Earlier releases like the F59PHI, GP7 and several freight cars were overproduced. Even the decision to make the California Zephyr looked risky at the time. We are still cautious, but the rise of Z scale sales will translate into more future Z products. Passenger and freight cars now take about a year from start to finish. Locomotives are a different animal taking between 2 to 4 years to make production ready. If we need to change the production quantity it is not without risk since it can lead to a reschedule of production slots. That is why have been off with numbers on some of our current releases. The E7 project was "quick" since we based it on the E8. Looking forward to the continuation of this run. I know a lot of you would like a release plan, but that is always a moving target. We anticipate the SW and yet another not mentioned locomotive this year which will change the order of currently planned E7 releases. Then the SD40-2 should be ready to go by this time next year (or earlier). On top of that are SD70ACe and RS-3 reruns. I just counted and it is 115 new locomotive releases!! Then we have all the E7, E8, F7 and RS/RSD (first run) that are not yet released!! That is a lot of sorting out over the next 24 months+. So bear with us  |
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Post by ztrack on Apr 6, 2021 6:58:04 GMT -5
Second run of ATSF F7s in May... 115 new locomotive releases... unnamed locomotive...
I picked a fine day to stop sniffing glue...
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Post by zman on Apr 6, 2021 7:04:14 GMT -5
I have a small layout with four locomotives and about 30+ freight cars. I really like my GP30, GP38-2 and RSD-3 locomotives. I have an MTL SD40-2 I would most likely replace with an AZL type. But I am worried that if I don't get up at 0001 CDT I might not be able to get my next locomotive until 2025. I know it is an administrative burden but is there anyway you could have a pre-order option such as you are doing with the Lamey model? Keep up the good work. Happy Tuesday!!
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Post by sjl on Apr 6, 2021 8:45:33 GMT -5
Rob and Hans, Will the Golden State passenger cars be released in a box set at the same time as the ABB E7 units like the Super Chief was released? Need to start saving up money if this is so. ... And if that's not enough to drive you nuts, think about this: I've got 4 other limited production unannounced "name trains" in stock and ready to go. ... and two more in tooling. So one of them must be The Gull, right? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gull |
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Post by Rob Albritton on Apr 6, 2021 9:52:43 GMT -5
We must have someone around here who is leaking information. |
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Post by Hans Riddervold (AZL) on Apr 7, 2021 9:03:02 GMT -5
 Production photo of GN E7A |
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Post by cwrr on Apr 7, 2021 9:27:01 GMT -5
The one I'm waiting for!!  Thanks for the pic, Hans!  |
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Post by smr on Apr 24, 2021 15:29:30 GMT -5
Rob and Hans, Will the Golden State passenger cars be released in a box set at the same time as the ABB E7 units like the Super Chief was released? Need to start saving up money if this is so. As of right now, no. Here is the deal: The Golden State cars were produced some time ago (more than a year) They were produced with the other streamliner cars and packaged in individual boxes. We held them back awaiting E7 units to go with them. The E7s are also in individual boxes. At the time, I really added the Golden State because the train matched our tooling pretty well, and it was easy to add them to the order at the time. I also had no idea how good looking they would be until they arrived. WOW! The "name trains" have done much better than anticipated. If I had know I would have ordered 4 times the number that we have on hand. That being said, I have a very strong feeling that we will re-order the Golden State, and we have not even released the first batch. So for those of you who get your hands on a set, think of yourself as getting the "founders" edition. Because of the timing, we did not have special packaging produced for the Golden State. The Golden State project was actually started BEFORE the California Zephyr or Super Chief. We didn't get into the special packaging concept until the California Zephyr. So, we will sell it as a set, but it will be delivered in individual clear plastic boxes. And if that's not enough to drive you nuts, think about this: I've got 4 other limited production unannounced "name trains" in stock and ready to go. ... and two more in tooling. I apologize, because I know this stuff is expensive, I know they are desirable, and I know it seems like they are coming as a flood. The truth is many of these have been years in the planning. Many of the components are arriving all at the same time, and this year we have been able to really crank up the production. We are trying our best to space them out for affordability sake, but the backlog of unreleased and unannounced products keeps growing. It's an amazing time to be in Z scale. .....and you set the bar high:    Best, Sven  SP 6000 !!!   |
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Post by markm on Apr 24, 2021 16:50:46 GMT -5
Rob and Hans, Will the Golden State passenger cars be released in a box set at the same time as the ABB E7 units like the Super Chief was released? Need to start saving up money if this is so. As far as I know, Rock Island ran their E7s as an ABB set. SP is a bit more complicated (and pricey). The original consists were ABBA sets. As time went on they reduced the consists to three units, either ABB or ABA. Also, when the train was handed over to SP they would add a couple of heavyweight mail storage cars, similar to AZLs 71904-3 to the head end. |
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Post by cwrr on May 8, 2021 13:20:55 GMT -5
Is there anyway we could possibly get a basic timeline of which E's are coming out, like the RS's/RSD's, so I know when to save money for the GN E7's, cause I sure don't wanna' miss those! |
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Post by Rob Albritton on May 8, 2021 13:56:16 GMT -5
Is there anyway we could possibly get a basic timeline of which E's are coming out, like the RS's/RSD's, so I know when to save money for the GN E7's, cause I sure don't wanna' miss those! This summer / fall |
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Post by cwrr on May 8, 2021 17:41:43 GMT -5
Is there anyway we could possibly get a basic timeline of which E's are coming out, like the RS's/RSD's, so I know when to save money for the GN E7's, cause I sure don't wanna' miss those! This summer / fall  Ok, thanks Rob. |
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Post by markm on May 8, 2021 18:41:02 GMT -5
Ok, thanks Rob. Why can’t we have some fun with this? Maybe bring out the daylight E7 on the anniversary of SP4449, the last operational of the original Daylights? Or maybe the birthday of Leland Stanford (ugh…go bears) or the workweek corresponding to the road number? Mark |
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), statistics says . . . you loose.
Ok, thanks Rob.